PANJIM: People fighting for the rights of tenants and Kul Mundkar have called on all like-minded people to come together on a common platform to form a program and fight for the protection of land in Goa.
Speaking on Herald TV’s weekly Point Counterpoint discussion, “Goa’s Mundkars: Fighting for land & identity”, the activists and legal experts on the issue of Kul Mundkar in Goa questioned which political party has to date assured that they will settle even 1,000 cases of Kul and Mundkars in their tenure. The harsh reality is that there are over 50,000 cases of people fighting for their rights as Mundkars.
Legal expert and columnist Adv Radharao Gracias said, “Agricultural land needs to be protected. The central high command-based parties will never do it. I still feel, whether it is Bhoma or wherever there is a time to form a program and go to people. Otherwise we have lost it.”
“Goa has become a highly desirable cake and everybody wants to make money from it. There should be legislation restricting the sale of land from Goa to non-Goans,” he said.
Govind Shirodkar, founder member of GAKUVED Federation, an organisation that fights for the rights of tribals and other disadvantaged communities said, “There is no desire to give rights to the land to the Kul and Mundkars. We Niz Goenkars are fighting for the rights of the people. But what the Government did is they brought the Bhumiputra Bill to give land rights to migrants. No Panchayat cares for Goans and locals. They care for migrants. We have and are destroying ourselves.”
Shirodkar added that it was time to awaken the elected representatives who made their political career from the movements to come ahead and assure the people that they will help the people to get their rights in a time-bound manner.
Adv Prasad Shahapurkar, the lawyer of the tenants of Tiracol who fought and won a long hard battle for land rights and against the golf course and villa project at Tiracol said, “The time has come that there should be a special legislation to protect our land and as Goans we will stand together.”
Activist Sanjay Naik in the middle of the strong people’s opposition to the widening of the National Highway passing through Bhoma which will destroy several houses said, “The Government even after having its eyes over Goa is acting blind. If we have to protect Goan land we will have to have a political dispensation which matches our aspirations to protect Goa.”